Everyday Multivitamin: how to compare a long panel

Row count and amounts are two different things

A multivitamin panel is the longest label in this category, and the temptation is to treat a longer list as a bigger pack. It is not the same measurement.

Breadth is how many nutrients are listed. Depth is what each row states. Compare both, separately, and in that order.

Minerals are where compound and element part company

Vitamins are listed as the nutrient. Minerals are supplied as compounds, and the panel states the elemental content of the mineral rather than the mass of the compound.

The compound names sit in the ingredients list. The figures to compare sit in the panel.

• Magnesium as magnesium oxide or magnesium citrate
• Zinc as zinc citrate, gluconate or oxide
• Iron as ferrous fumarate or iron bisglycinate
• Iodine as potassium iodide
• Selenium as sodium selenite
• Panel figures are elemental, ingredients names are compounds

Mixed units across a single panel

One multivitamin panel can carry milligrams, micrograms and, for vitamin D, international units alongside micrograms.

Line up row against row in matching units when you compare two packs. A microgram figure next to a milligram figure is a thousandfold difference, and panels do not flag that for you.

The ingredients list and the allergen statement

The ingredients list has to show everything present, in descending order of weight, including the excipients that never appear on the front of a carton.

The allergen statement has to declare the regulated allergens that are in the product. Neither is optional, and together they are what a suitability claim has to answer to.

Sixty tablets is sixty tablets

Multivitamins are sold in packs that suit different portions, so a unit count is not a duration and cannot be turned into one.

Compare 60 tablets as a count and compare the pack prices directly, then read the portion on the label.

Pack against pack

Hold pack price, unit count, row count and the amounts in the rows you care about next to each other. That is the full comparison available today.

We do not print a cost per portion, because the portion is a label figure and belongs with the pack.

What the label tells you

The full ingredients list, the amount per portion, allergens, dietary suitability, directions and storage are printed on the pack.

Read the label before you take any supplement, and check the product page for the format, pack size and price before you buy.